


You Shouldn't Be Surprised

by camichats



Series: Imagine James and Sirius Prompts [12]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Established Relationship, First War with Voldemort, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Serious Injuries, hurt sirius
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-15 20:12:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11813370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: Sirius is seriously injured and James... doesn't know how to deal with it.





	You Shouldn't Be Surprised

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: "Hey! So... I know this may be cliche, but I hope you don't mind... Could you write a fic in which Sirius gets (seriously) hurt protecting James and/or Euphemia and Fleamont please? ~AJ"
> 
> Originally posted on [tumblr](https://imaginejamesandsirius.tumblr.com/post/164198997335/hey-so-i-know-this-may-be-cliche-but-i-hope)

When James heard the news, delivered by a frantic Peter, his heart stopped then picked up double time. _“Sirius is in critical condition,_ ” was in the list of Top Three Things James Never Wanted To Hear About Sirius. The other two were Sirius being dead or in prison. In less serious moments, he expanded the list, adding ‘attacked by cockatiels’, ‘fallen off a boulder’, ‘taken hostage by the Giant Squid’, and things like that to it. It didn’t seem so funny now.

“ _Euphemia and Fleamont were attacked, he got hurt. They’re okay, they’re at St. Mungo’s waiting for us._ ” Mum and Dad were attacked. Sirius was in critical condition. He- he couldn’t. How was he supposed to deal with this? The answer was obvious: he didn’t.

They didn’t let him in, and Remus and Peter had to hold him back from blasting his way to Sirius. He knew that, logically, everything they were saying made sense, but all he could think of was the fact that Sirius was hurt, possibly dying, and he wasn’t with him. Hadn’t been with him to protect him, either.

It did give him a moment though, to turn around and make sure his parents were okay. He felt guilty for not thinking of them sooner, but Euphemia smiled in understanding and pat his hand when he started to apologise for it. “Your father and I are not the ones who have been hurt, dear.”

“Still.” _You could’ve been_. He couldn’t stop thinking about how he should’ve been there. And he didn’t mean that in a usual ‘I feel responsible even though it’s not my fault’ way. He was supposed to be at Potter Manor for their weekly family dinner, but was running late first because the ring he had ordered for Sirius had come in and he had to pick it up, and then because he’d forgotten that he also needed to swing by the bakery and get a cake for Mum. He never did get the cake because Peter had found him before then, but the ring felt like a lead weight in his pocket now.

Dad was on Euphemia’s other side, holding her free hand with both of his. “Don’t worry about us, James.” He swallowed thickly, the seriousness in his expression making him look painfully old all of a sudden. “That boy can fight. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting it.”

James let out a choked-off laugh. Dad should have been expecting it. Would have been, had James told him about even a fraction of the scrapes they’d gotten into together as both Auror partners and members of the Order. He almost did, but at the last second kept his mouth shut; the last thing they needed was to know _just_ how much danger they were in all the time.

When he was finally let into the room, his heart squeezed painfully at the sight. Sirius looked so lifeless laying there, an unhealthy paleness to his skin and thick bandages around his torso.

James rushed to his side but was very careful with his hand when he placed it over Sirius’s. He listened numbly as the Medi-Witch ran through the list of everything he was healing from. It was too much. There shouldn’t be that many things wrong with him.

“Will he be okay?” James heard himself ask. It was the only thing that mattered.

The Medi-Witch hesitated, and James felt his stomach drop through the floor. “We’re not sure yet,” she admitted. She went on to talk about the potions he was on, the various spells that were at work, but it all came down to one thing: they didn’t know what would happen.

James stayed beside him. The chair was comfortable enough in theory, but after being sat on it for six hours straight, he had a different opinion. After another ten hours, his parents, Remus, and Peter tried to convince him to go to sleep. He gave in easily-- which surprised them-- but instead of leaving like they had meant, he changed position in the chair and laid his head down.

A few days later, they did manage to get him home to his and Sirius’s flat. He laid in bed for a few hours before giving sleep up as a lost cause and going back to St. Mungo’s. He supposed the bright side to all this-- if there was one-- was that Sirius was his Auror partner and he was designated to desk duty until Sirius recovered. (Or died and James would be assigned a new partner, but thankfully they had the tact to not say that even if it was heavily implied.) The further bright side to that, was that he was allowed to take all that paperwork home-- well, to St. Mungo’s. He got a surprising amount done, and it was for the same reason that he usually hated paperwork: it was mindless. Yes, he had to focus a certain amount but at the end of the day it felt like he had done nothing. When he spent all day waiting and desperately hoping for Sirius to wake, there was no loss.

Five days after the attack, Sirius woke up. James ~~may have~~ cried, Mum and Dad cried, and Peter and Remus cried, they were just more reserved about it. Or maybe they weren’t. It was possible James was a bit distracted at the time.

When the Medi-Witch came in to talk to Sirius… well. Then he cried too.

One of the only things worse than hearing that Sirius might die, was having to see _Sirius_ hear that. “Why’s that- erm.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Sirius couldn’t bring himself to look back at the Medi-Witch when he opened his eyes. “Why’s that happening? Like, what’s not getting fixed?” James couldn’t remember. Merlin why could he remember?

“Your lungs. You’re not getting enough oxygen.”

“But I feel fine.”

She indicated to a tube that disappeared under Sirius’s gown. “This is delivering an oxygen-healing cocktail to your lungs. Your body’s building a tolerance, and if we can’t find a solution, you’ll eventually suffocate."

He laughed hollowly, and James tried to blink away the tears that sprang forth. “That’s not as explosive a way as I was hoping to go out, but I guess I’ll have to make do.”

“There’s no guarantee,” she tried to comfort him, but he cut her off before she could say any more.

“If it was going to work, it would have worked by now.” She very obviously bit back her reply, instead giving a nod to both of them before she left the room.

James slid down onto the bed next to Sirius and pulled him into his side. Sirius turned to hide his face in James’s chest, and while tears soaked through his shirt, Sirius wasn’t shaking or making any noise.

“‘S not dramatic enough for me, you know?” Sirius sniffled. James could feel his lips moving through the fabric of his shirt. This might be the last time Sirius could do something like this. “Dying from not getting enough to breathe is just… I’m going to fade away, and that’s how you’re going to remember me.”

“You’re not going to die.” James kissed his head. “You don’t get to die on me. We promised we’d spend our lives together and you- you’re not keeping up your end of the deal.”

Sirius sniffed, but laughed. “You forced me into it; it doesn’t count.”

“Oh? So you don’t want to marry me? Damn, now I have to return the ring.”

“Please tell me you’re joking.”

James ignored his serious tone and said, “Of course I am, I would never return it.”

“James.”

He brushed back some of Sirius’s hair. “Come on. You can’t say this surprises you.”

Sirius moved so he could look at James. “We said we were going to wait until the war was over.”

“Yeah. We did.”

“What changed?”

James shrugged even though he knew exactly what had changed. Gideon had died recently and Benjy-- though a sobbing, drunken mess at the time-- had admitted that he would rather have been married for as long as they could have been than have to deal with Gideon only ever being a boyfriend. “Just love you is all.”

“You’re full of shit, Potter,” he said quietly.

“Is that a no?”

“You didn’t actually ask me, you know.”

“I have a whole speech planned, do you want to hear it?”

Sirius chuckled, rearranging himself so they were more comfortable. “Yeah, let’s hear it. Come on Prongs, sing my praises.”

**Author's Note:**

> In case you were wondering, Sirius does get better, but I imagine he has a lingering, permanent injury.
> 
> This is from a prompt driven blog @[imaginejamesandsirius](https://imaginejamesandsirius.tumblr.com) on tumblr


End file.
